Splice-piece for railroad-kails



.l OFFICE E. MORRIS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SPLICE-PIECE FOR RAILROAD-RAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 1,014, dated July 27, 1858i.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ELnwooD Monnis, of the city of Philadelphia andState of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement inRail-Splices for Railroads; and I do hereby declare the following to bea full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawing and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

My invention relates to an improvement in the ordinary iish splice forrails, and my improvement consists in binding together the ends of twoordinary rails, by means of a plate or plates, so bent and formed and sosecured to the opposite sides of the two rails, as to embrace the lowerflanches of the same and have longitudinal bearings against the sidesand at points above and below the .narrowest portion of the rails,leaving a longitudinal open space between these points, transverselythrough which open space pass the bolts for securing the splice, thewhole being arranged substantially in the manner described hereafter,for the purpose of affording a substantial, cheap, and unyieldingcoupling for the ends of the rails.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to make and use myinvention, I will now proceed to describe its construction andoperation.

On reference to the drawing, which forms a part of this specification,Figure l, is a longitudinal elevation, showing the ends of two railsconnected together by means of my improved splice. Fig. 2, a ground planof Fig. l. Fig. 3, a transverse section on the line 1, 2 (Fig. l). Fig.4, a section, showing a modiiied form of my improved splice.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

A and A represent the ends of two ordinary edge rails, and B and B thetwo bent plates, which form the improved splice. It will be observed,that these plates are not perfectly adapted to the hollow sides of therails, but that they have a narrow bearing throughout their whole lengthat the point a, which is situated midway, or thereabout, between thewidest part of the upper portion of the rail and the narrowest point atthe middle of the same. From this bearing point a to a point b, on thetop of the lower flange of the rail, there is a space between eachplate, which forms the splice,

and having at the opposite end slots for receiving the split keys e.

In carrying' the above arrangement into practice, I prefer, for splicingrails of the ordinary dimensions to make the plates B and B two feet inlength and one half of an inch in thickness, secured by four bolts fiveeights of an inch in diameter, two bolts for each rail. This number isthe least that' will prevent a Vertical movement of thel rails at thepoint where they approach each other. The bolts should tit tightly inthe bent plates, but the holes in the rails through which they pass,should be slightly oblong, in order to allow for the expansion andcontraction of the rails. By allowing the plates to bear against therail at the point-s a and Z), so as to leave an open space between thesepoints, it is evident that a more tight grip of the rail can be obtainedon driving the keys tight, than if the plates were perfectly adapted tothe form of the rail; in fact the open spaces f f allow the plates toyield to a limited extent at this point, when the keys are driven, andthus one of the most efficacious of fastenings technically termed aspring grip is obtained.

The above described splice may be termed an improvement on the ordinaryfish splice, which consists of two plain metal plates, adapted andbolted to the hollow sides of the rails only.

The superiority of the present arrangement over the last mentioned modeof splicing will be apparent, for that portion of the plates, whichembraces the lower flange of the rail, affords of itself a rigidcoupling. At the same time, each plate forms a substantial, unyieldinggirder to resist thc superincumbent weight and shocks imparted to therails, and the sectional form of this girder is not only of itself oneof great strength, but additional rigidity is imparted to it by theintervening flanch of the rail embraced by the plate. Moreover, as theweight imposed on the rail rests on the unv flanches of the splice.

der turned portion of the plates, a separation of the splice cannottake'place, even though the bolts should break.

Instead of using two opposite plates for forming the splice, one singleplate may be arranged to embrace the whole of the lower portion oftherail, as seen in Fig. 4, and this without departing from the mainprinciples or losing any of the advantageous features above set forth.In fact, the modification represented in Fig'. L affords the strongersplice, but one in the manufacture of which greater expense must beincurred than when the two plates B and B are used. The latter may beeasily rolled in long bars and sawed off, when hot, into lengths of twofeet by machinery similar to that used in sawing ofll the ends of rails,whereas the modied splice, shown in Fig. 4:, can only be formed bybending a fiat bar to the necessary shape. I propose to secure thesplice, together with the ends of the rails, to the sleepers in themanner illustrated in red lines, D D being the sleepers, which arepartially cut away to receive the lower rl`wo of the usual hook headedspikes are driven into each sleeper, one gripping the rail and bea-ringagainst the end of the splice, thus securing it from end play, and theother spike gripping the splice.

Having now described the nature of my invention and the manner in whichthe same may be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood, that Ido not claim broadly, splicing ltogether the ends of two rails by platesbolted to the sides of the same, as this device has been heretofore usedboth in this country and in Europe, but

I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent- Splicing together theends of two rails, by means of a plate or plates, so bent and formed andso secured to the opposite sides of the two rails, as to embrace thelower flanches of the same, and have longitudinal bearings against thesides and at points above andy below the narrowest portion of the rails,leaving a longitudinal open space between these points, transverselythrough which space pass the bolts for securing the splice, the wholebeing arranged substantially in the manner herein set forth, and for thepurpose specified.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my naine to this specificationbefore two subscribing witnesses.

ELLWOOD MORRIS.

Witnesses HENRY HowsoN, HENRY ODIORNE.

